Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
OtherRealms Issue 11 Part 03
OtherRealms
A Reviewzine for the Non-Fan
Where FIJAGH Becomes a Way of Life
Issue #11
December, 1986
Part 3
Words of Wizdom
Reviews
by
Chuq Von Rospach
Copyright 1986 by Chuq Von Rospach
The best Fantasy of the year should be hitting the bookstores as you
read this. Pat Murphy's THE FALLING WOMAN (Tor hardcover, November,
1986, $14.95) is the best thing I've read in a year of very strong
offerings. Elizabeth Butler is an archaeologist working on a Mayan dig
in Mexico. She also sees ghosts, the shadows of the dead that live in
the ruins she is investigating.
This is primarily a psychological Fantasy, but is enriched with a
strong sense of Mayan background, history, and folklore. Elizabeth's
long estranged daughter, Diane, joins the dig after her fathers death
trying to find herself. She can, like her mother, see shadows but
doesn't understand the ability. The story revolves around the two of
them trying to come to grips with themselves, with each other, and with
a train of events that a long dead Mayan priestess weaves around them
in an attempt to bring back the slumbering God's of her time.
The real selling points of the book are the characterizations and mood
that Murphy evokes. She builds an emotional tension just short of that
found in the horror genre, drags you in and gets you involved. The people,
even the minor characters, are fully fleshed individuals, not the
stereotypes or caricatures found all too often in books these days.
She makes you care, puts you on the edge of your seat, and doesn't let
you go until the end of the story. If there is any justice, this is
next years World Fantasy Award winner, and the people who vote Nebula's
need to take a close look at this work. I can't recommend it highly
enough. If you like substance in your reading, authors like Wolfe
or LeGuin or Wilhelm, this is the book for you. [*****]
* * *
THE LEGACY OF LEHR (Walker and Company, 235 pages, $15.95) is the new
book by Katherine Kurtz. It is the first in a new series of books
being packaged by Byron Preiss called Millennium, where each book will
deal with a major them of Science Fiction. LEHR is primarily a locked
room murder mystery set on a space ship. A luxury space liner is
diverted to a backwater planet to pick up an emergency cargo -- four
bright blue, telepathic, noisy lions destined for the Emperor.
Shortly, people start dying, their throats ripped out, a small amount
of bright blue fur gripped in their dying grasp. The lions have been
under full guard the whole time, but it is obvious that somehow they're
getting out of their cage, walking through the ship, killing people,
and getting back in -- past cameras, guards and locked doors -- all
without being seen. Or is something else going on?
Kurtz takes the story seriously enough to make it work, but with enough
camp to keep it from getting overbearing. She throws in strange aliens
(including one set whose main religious devil is a bright green, telepathic,
noisy lion), vampires, religious fanatics, native rituals and all sorts
of other strange concepts without making you feel like she's playing
games with the reader. When it all comes down to it, this book is
well written and an enjoyable read. Preiss seems to have a winner
with this new series, and I'm looking forward to future books. [****]
* * *
Last month's Books Received had a number of titles from a small press
called Space and Time. The small press is an area that tends to get
overlooked by most readers, and if THE SPY WHO DRANK BLOOD by publisher
Gordon Linzner (Space and Time, 1984, 127 pages, $5.95 trade paperback
from 138 West 70th Street (4B) New York, 10023-4432) is any indication
of the quality of the field, much to the readers disadvantage.
Frankly, my initial thought was to say something like "this book is
good enough to be published by a major house" but that implies that the
small press publishes lesser quality books, which isn't true. There
ARE areas where the small press is little more than a vanity press, but
in many occasions the books are works that slip through the less
flexible publishing standards of the major houses.
SPY is a good example. Like all Space and Time works, it is
cross-genre, combining Science Fiction, Mystery, and Horror into a
single work. Immediately, this gives a major house heartburn -- how do
you market something that doesn't fit into the genre cleanly? The
small press doesn't have to worry about that, fortunately.
Linzner writes a story about Blood, a secret agent who happens to be a
vampire. In between assignments, he is literally kept on ice, being
kept frozen cryogenically until he is needed to keep his drinking
habits under control. Unlike human beings, cryogenic freezing doesn't
kill him, it just makes him thirsty and allows him to survive daylight
(to Linzner's credit, the only modification to the vampire folklore he
allowed himself).
His keeper's daughter is abducted in the Everglades by a band of insane
radical terrorists. The first agent who goes in doesn't come back out,
so he turns to Blood. Blood travels down there, finds the girl and the
group, and then watches as the group gets decimated by something even
worse...
Be aware that Blood is pretty ruthless, and that Linzner is not afraid
to write him that way. Forgiving or merciful he's not. It isn't
particularly graphic, gory, or gruesome, but it can be intense.
I liked it, a lot. I think most people would, if they could find it.
Small press books don't get into many bookstores, so you'll have to
search for them, or order directly from the publisher. I think it's
worth it. The small press field is a relatively new area for me, but
after Space and Time I hope to be reading and reviewing more in the
future from the alternative publishing houses. [****]
* * *
If you're looking for Horror, a lot of people are starting to publish
it. If you're looking for GOOD Horror, though, look at Graham
Masterson. Where Steven King writes very personal, real life Horror
books, Masterson write the more traditional "things are going to pop
out and chew on your hand for a while" kind. It is very different from
King's works, but as good in his own way. His latest, DEATH TRANCE
(Tor Horror, September, 1986, 409 pages, $3.95) is a good example. He
mixes the mystique of the Hindu death trance (where adepts can actually
walk among the dead and talk to them -- something very few priests can
accomplish and survive) with modern societal horrors in such a way that
it all flows together and crawls up your spine.
The president of an independent cottonseed oil refinery company has a
plant burned. His family is brutally massacred. It is obvious that
the rival Cottonseed Oil association (who just lost a major contract to
him) is involved somehow, but why stoop to inhumane torture and murder?
While recovering from the shock of his loss, he is told of the death
trance, and decides he has to say good-bye to his family before he can
start his life again. So, off to Java he goes in search of an adept,
taking along a few people (some good, some uninvited and not so good).
The horror of everyday life -- the torture, the slimy business
dealings, corruption, and inhumanity -- counterpoints the death trance
and the fantastical horrors found beyond, and makes it acceptable.
Everything falls together, and everything ties together in the end. The
book isn't explicit or graphic. It doesn't need to be, as Masterson is
a superb writer that generates pictures in your mind better than
anything that could be put on a page. Pictures, mind you, that will
take time to go away -- the mark of a good Horror writer.
I find horror a wonderful change of pace from an overdose of Fantasy.
No Unicorns, no dwarves, no cute little elves and their pointy little
ears. The basis between the two genres are very similar, but horror
twists things into the realm of darkness instead of light. If you
haven't tried to read horror, you should. This book is as good as
place to start as any I've seen in a while (anything by King is, too).
Be sure you have a nightlight, though. You might need it. [****]
* * *
Imagine, for a second, that a living fossil is discovered. A real,
live, breathing member of the long extinct species Homo Habilis. Our
forefather. What do you think would happen?
You were right. He'd get married and have a kid and be a successful
artist.
That's the premise of ANCIENT OF DAYS, from author Michael Bishop.
Bishop starts with 100 pages of the best Hard SF I've read since BLOOD
MUSIC, but my overworked sense of disbelief threw me out of the book
when he got overly cute and started playing games. I could accept Homo
Habilis. I could even accept how he got into rural Georgia. I could
even accept him being adopted by a lonely (but beautiful) woman artist
who wants to protect him from the world.
But, with the Klan and the Government and the Black Radicals and
everyone with a Cause breathing down her neck, the two go out and get
secretly married. Okay, I can believe that, sort of. Nobody finds out
about it. (my disbelief is creaking). WE find out about it when the
Immigration people come to arrest him as an illegal alien so that the
anthropologists can get their hands on him.
Uh, the government didn't know they were married? Right. Even less
plausible, once the marriage is shown to be legal, everyone goes off
and leaves them alone? Can you REALLY believe that all the
anthropologists in the world are going to be nice and wonderful and not
try to take midnight urine samples and make themselves into royal
pests? Well....
Even if you could buy an entire arm of academia acting like rational
human beings over the Rosetta Stone of ancient humanity, Bishop takes
your disbelief one step further, as Adam (the obvious name) learns to
drive and sits around in the evening reading C.S. Lewis, PILGRIM'S
PROGRESS, the Koran, and other similar kiddie books.
That pop you heard was my disbelief snapping. One of the physiological
traits of Homo Habilis is the lack of pre-frontal lobes. Bishop has
just postulated a pre-humanoid species with an I.Q. and cognitive
powers greater than most of humanity, but without enough brain power to
handle it. Now, maybe you can get past the absurdity of a glorified
chimpanzee reading the collected works of human philosophy, but I
couldn't. Bishop should have played Adam straight. He didn't, which
successfully ruined whatever Bishop was trying to say with this book.
The story is too convenient, and he strays too far from the realm of
possibility for a hard SF work. Too bad, I wanted the book to work for
me. Not recommended [*]
* * *
Signet is the latest publisher to develop a shared world anthology
similar to the very popular THIEVES' WORLD series. If you like these
kinds of books, you'll really like BORDERTOWN created and edited by
Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold (Signet, 251 page, $2.95). It is
set in Bordertown, an enclave of humanity and elves in the netherlands
between our world and Fairie, where both technology and magic work.
Sort of.
It is a lot closer to Ace's LIAVEK series than it is THIEVES' WORLD.
This shouldn't be surprising, because the lead story (and the best in
the book) is DANCELAND by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly, creators of
LIAVEK. It is completely separate from LIAVEK, though, but like that
series avoids the dreary depression endemic to THIEVES' WORLD. Three
of the four stories are winners, and the worst (MOCKERY by Ellen Kushner
and Bellamy Bach) still rates a solid so-so on the interest meter, so
the book as a whole is pretty solid. If you like the concept of punk
elves, you'll love BORDERTOWN. The cover, by British artist Phil Hale,
is, if not the best cover of the year, certainly the most distinctive.
I hope other publishers take a close look at it, at the covers they're
doing. It IS amazing how much more attractive a book that stands out
on the racks can be. I hope this one sells well. [****]
* * *
THE POSTMAN by David Brin was a 1986 Hugo nominee for Best Novel.
Bantam has just released it in paperback (321 pages, $3.95) so everyone
who hasn't read it yet can find out what they're missing. It's a very
good work, and a big change from the kind of novels Brin has written in
the past. It isn't SF as much as it is folklore, as Brin spins the
tale of a post-holocaust survivor who steals the jacket from a long
dead postal worker and finds himself spinning the stories of a rebuilt
United States. THE POSTMAN stands with Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan,
and the other larger than life figures that tell the stories of our
country. Through rain or sleet or fallout, the mail will go through,
and with it, hope. [*****]
* * *
Michael Perrin, the boy turned man in the worlds of the Sidhe, has
returned in the sequel to Greg Bear's wonderful INFINITY CONCERTO. THE
SERPENT MAGE (Berkley books, 343 pages, $3.50) carries on the story as
the Sidhe and all of the inhabitants of the other realm start migrating
to our world. Greg Bear is one of the few writers today who can handle
any flavor of the genre from Hard SF (BLOOD MUSIC) to straight Fantasy.
This is another fine book from a fine author. Highly recommended. [*****]
* * *
John Varley has always been a writer whose strength is in the shorter
works. His latest collection is BLUE CHAMPAGNE (Berkley books, 290
pages, $2.95) and includes "Press Enter []", his award winning short
story as well as seven other works. Some of the works, such as
"Lollipop and the Tar Baby" will probably be familiar to Varley
readers, but many of these have been collected from relatively small
distribution publications. This collection also contains what I think
is the best Varley story ever in the title work, which was originally
published in NEW VOICES, an anthology series most people have probably
never heard of -- the price of admission is worth this gem alone. The
weakest story of the bunch, believe it or not, is "Press Enter []",
which I found to be a very powerful story the first time I read it, but
re-reading it was a disappointment, there doesn't seem to be the imagery
or staying power I'd expected. Still, a good book from a master. [****]
* * *
When Gene Wolfe was writing the Book of the New Sun series, Locus
magazine accidentally used the title THE CASTLE OF THE OTTER for one of
the books. Wolfe liked the title enough that he wrote a book for it.
The result, originally published by the small press Zeising Brothers,
is now available through the Science Fiction Book Club. It is a small,
113 page book in which Wolfe discusses the writing of the series, the
background, history, flavor and etymology that went into the classic
series of books. Many authors, when they try this, end up sounding
egotistical and self-indulgent. Wolfe carefully peels away the skin
and bone, layer by layer bringing to light the mental processes inside
a writers skull. It is a definite must for any writer or prospective
writer, and anyone with an interest in the series or in what goes on
behind the series should take the time to track this book down. It is
of limited enough interest that I doubt it will show up on the mass
market, so if you don't belong to the SFBC, find a friend who is and
order it. [****]
* * *
Sometimes I wonder if Baen Books is self-destructive or if someone
simply put a curse on them. Earlier this year they upset the
bookstores with an abortive Book Club. So far, every book from them
I've reviewed I've panned (for example, the HEROES IN HELL series
ripoff of THIEVES' WORLD). Now, I've found a good book, but it is so
poorly packaged and mismarketed that I doubt it will have a chance of
selling well. It is beginning to look like they can't win.
The book in question is ZOBOA by author Martin Caidin. Caidin is a
solid author with credits such as MAROONED, THE MESSIAH STONE, and THE
FINAL COUNTDOWN. Here he's written a very good action adventure SF
Thriller with a topical subject. In a few days, a multi-national crew
will be taking a space shuttle into orbit in front of a large crowd of
dignitaries from around the world. Unfortunately, four nuclear bombs
have been hijacked by a radical Arab death squad -- the target, the
shuttle and dignitaries. Nine days to get the bombs back from a group
of suicidal maniacs happy to take millions with them, or risk a major
international disaster.
This is a very well written book, with one proviso. It was not really
written as a Science Fiction book, but as a mainstream adventure. The
women jiggle, and when they're wearing anything it is tight fitting.
The men cuss a lot, as Real Men are wont to do. The action is fast
paced, moving along at a breakneck speed. This book could sell very
well nestled into the mainstream lists next to Lawrence Sanders.
Unfortunately, it has the Science Fiction label attached prominently,
so the mainstreamers (who don't realize they're reading SF when they
read Sanders...) won't touch it. And I think the mainstream aspects
of the writing will turn off a lot of genre readers. This book has
Best Seller written all over it if someone had just marketed it right.
Unfortunately...
We come to the second problem. The cover, by David Mattingly, is
painted in colors that can only be described as putrid purples and
pinks. It shows a shuttle blasting from the launch pad, surrounded by
fighter planes and troops in combat gear. And the cover blurb says
"This time it wouldn't be an accident." Now, it is obvious that this
book was in preparation long before the shuttle accident early this
year. There is a place in the book where the people who died in that
accident are acknowledged briefly. Caidin looks like he tried hard to
keep the book from capitalizing on our country's loss while
acknowledging it. The cover blurb, though, is thoughtless, tactless,
and in very poor taste. I found myself simultaneously revolted,
insulted and outraged that someone could take the shuttle accident and
try to turn it into a marketing tool.
If it wasn't for that blurb, I could recommend the book with
reservations about the mainstream slant of the writing. As it stands,
unless they re-do the cover and re-issue the book, I won't. That
someone at Baen can be so thoughtless, and that nobody else caught it
before it shipped, is inexcusable. If you DO buy this book, I suggest
you take the cover and mail it back to Baen and tell them what you
think about it. I hope Caidin had a few choice words about how they
treated this book -- I certainly would have. [*]
* * *
SONG OF KALI by Dan Simmons (Tor Horror, November 1986, 311 pages,
$3.95) is another example of Tor's dominance in the growing horror
field. It recently won the World Fantasy Award (we can argue about why
a horror title should win a Fantasy award some other time) and the
award is well deserved. Robert Luczak, his wife and infant daughter
travel to the city of Calcutta in search of a new manuscript from an
Indian poet thought dead. What they find is horror, the horror of
man's inhumanity to man, the horror of the squalor of the human cesspool
that is Calcutta. Simmons uses Calcutta, the Indian culture and a brush
with the death cults that worship the Goddess Kali as examples of larger
problems. There is no happy ending in KALI, but the slighest ray of
hope peeks through the clouds of despair. Highly recommended. [****+]
Two Views of the Hugo
The following articles are not Copyrighted, and have been placed into
the public domain to make it as easy as possible to reproduce and pass
around. Feel free to copy and distribute these articles to anyone you
feel would be interested.
E-mail: chuq@sun.COM, djo@ptsfd.UUCP
[In issue 9, I plugged the 1987 Worldcon and suggested that everyone
should get involved in choosing the Hugos. The Hugo is the most
visible award given in Science Fiction, and carries weight with the
press, with the publishers, and with the general buying public.
As you might guess, my suggestion to get involved or get out started a
few discussions. It's continuing with the next few pages, where Dan'l
Danehy-Oakes looks at what is wrong with the Hugo award today, and I
take a few potshots from the battlements at what I think would make it
better. I want to try to revive the lettercol in the next couple of
issues, and I can't think of a better topic: these are the opening
comments, but I want to know what you think of the Hugo as well, and
I'll make sure the best of the comments get passed along in OtherRealms.
The Hugo isn't perfect, by any means. But it IS important, so ignoring
it isn't the answer. Lets see if we can make it better, instead.]
CONSPIRACY? WHAT CONSPIRACY?
by
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
A while ago Chuq suggested that you all "Join the Conspiracy" --
purchase a supporting membership in the upcoming Worldcons so you could
vote for the Hugos. I would like to suggest that the last thing the
Hugo award needs is more people voting in its selection.
Now, I realize that you are a person of excellent taste and fine
sensibilities; that you are of refined and sophisticated critical
judgement; otherwise you would not be reading such an estimable and
excellent publication as OtherRealms. But does mere good taste and
critical judgement qualify one to vote for the Hugo awards? Ideally,
no. I'll explain that in a moment, but first...
In fact, there is only one qualification currently enforced if one is
to vote for the Hugo awards, and that is a financial qualification.
You must be able to pay for at least a supporting membership in the
World Science Fiction Association, the official name of the
Convention's membership.
This means that to vote for the Hugo, you don't even have to read the
books and stories nominated.
Think about that for a minute. Then think about this. In 1978, at the
IguanaCon (the World Science Fiction Convention held in Phoenix that
year), a small group of individuals buttonholed a rather larger group
of attendees, and asked them whether they had voted for that year's
novel Hugo; and if they had, how many of the nominees they had actually
read prior to voting.
Of those who had voted, less than 40% had read all the nominated books.
Try this logic. The number of people who have read a book is
proportional to the number of people who bought it. There is no reason
to believe that this is less true within the population who vote for
Hugos than outside it. The only substantial difference that can
reasonably be expected between the Hugo- voters and the non-Hugo voters
is a greater likelihood to buy and read hard- cover SF.
The greater a book's advance publicity budget and/or the greater the
author's reputation based on her PREVIOUS books, the greater the sales
of a book will be.
Hypothesis: Nobody votes for a book she hasn't read for the Hugo, over
a book she has read, unless she -really- hated the one she read.
(At this point, some Nimrod is jumping up and down, saying, "But being
a best-seller doesn't mean a book is bad!" BINGO! Best-sellerdom
doesn't mean a book is ANYTHING It means the publisher spent bucks, or
the author has a reputation. But DelRey Books spent big bucks pushing
THE SWORD OF SHA-NA-NA, and a man with a real big reputation once wrote
something called FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD. Neither of the principal
contributors to best-sellerdom is a reliable mark of quality.)
Given these likelihoods and facts, a books advance publicity budget and
the author's prior reputation have an unwarrantedly high degree of
influence on who wins the Hugo.
What can be done?
In an ideal world, the Hugo might work like this. There would be two
ballots for the general membership of the convention. The first would
allow them to nominate the books and stories which would end up on the
final list. The top five (or three, or seventeen) of each category
would be that year's nominees. The second public ballot would be a
slate of persons each of whom had agreed to read all the nominees
before voting. The general membership would select who, from that
list, they wished to represent them in selecting the winners of the
Hugos. Perhaps a system of "weighting" their votes based on their
support from the general membership might be adopted.
At any rate, this would ensure that only people who had taken the
trouble to become qualified to vote, by reading the nominees, would
make the selection.
In the real world, of course, such a plan would never be accepted. "It
ain't democratic." Well... neither is writing talent. Some people
have it; some don't. Democracy may not be the best way for judging an
inherently UNdemocratic phenomenon.
In the real world, there is only one thing that can be done. And only
you can do it. If you are going to vote for the Hugos, read the
nominees. Otherwise, you may help keep the best book from winning.
If you can't make a commitment to read all the nominees... stay away
from the ballots. Because the last thing the Hugo award needs is more
uninformed voters.
What's wrong with the Hugo?
by Chuq Von Rospach
Dan'l's article notwithstanding, I don't really think there is anything
significant wrong with the Hugos. They do just what they are designed
to do: show the world what the membership of the annual Worldcon
thinks are the best in the genre for that year.
Perceptions, on the other hand...
The big problem is that the general public thinks that the membership
of a Worldcon represents the readership of Science Fiction as a whole.
Wrong. Because of this, there is a lot of breastbeating every year
because people feel that the Hugos don't represent them.
Most of these people, of course, would never be caught dead voting for
the Hugo, of course. Which goes back to my comment in #9. If you get
involved in the voting process, you CAN make the Hugo represent what
you think they should. If you don't get involved, you shouldn't gripe
about the results.
The griping will continue, of course, no matter what I say. And the
Hugos are in good company. The SFWA fights a running battle over the
Nebula, and neither of these comes close to the second guessing and
backbiting that goes on around the Oscar. Personally, I think the
controversy is a good sign -- it shows people are paying attention and
thinking about the results. Its better than being ignored.
* * *
There are a number of ways that the Hugo can be improved, though.
First and foremost, to me, is the silly Australian ballot preference
system used for counting votes. I won't attempt to explain the system
-- it looks like a statisticians masters thesis and makes keeping score
while bowling look easy. Rather, the following excerpt from Locus #309
says it all:
"'The Only Neat Thing to Do' [...] had the most nominations AND the
most first place votes and led for the first three rounds. It lost
to the Zelazny story because it didn't command enough second place
votes. The story eliminated next to last was the C.J. Cherryh, and
most of these voters preferred the Zelazny story in their second place."
In other words, Tiptree got the most votes, (208 to 194 for the winning
Zelazny story) but lost because people who like C. J. Cherryh stories
(who placed fifth in the voting, even though she got more votes than
the fourth place Robinson story) prefer Zelazny to Tiptree.
Huh?
I'm sorry, but if you get the most votes, you take home the award. Except
under a balloting system that requires an MBA, two computers, and an
astrology chart. In 1986, out of 13 categories, the person with the most
first place votes LOST in three categories. I'm just glad they don't do
this with the presidential elections; can you imagine the possibilities?
* * *
It also seems obvious that the No Award award doesn't work. People
will simply not vote rather than vote for nothing (two entirely
different things!) thereby letting an award go to someone who doesn't
have the support of the membership. One way to make the Hugo more
valuable is to stop giving it out when it isn't deserved. No Award was
supposed to do this, but it hasn't worked. Rather than forcing someone
to take a positive action, I think it is better to simply remove No
Award from the ballot completely, and only give the award in a category
when 50%+1 of the valid ballots have a vote for the category. If 50%
of the voters don't vote, the membership is saying there isn't
something in the category worth voting for, and the award isn't
justified. In the case of Best Fanzine this year, there was a major
campaign for the No Award. If it hadn't been for the Australian
counting, it would have "won" (239 votes vs. the winning Lan's Lantern
153). Under the suggested rules, there were 1267 legal ballots, and
805 voted for Best Fanzine. When you subtract the 239 No Award
ballots, you end up with 566 votes for the category, well below the
awarding level. The Fan Writer category would also not have been
awarded, and the Fan Artist is right on the edge.
Hugos should be given out for a reason, not because they exist.
Changing No Award will make sure that when there isn't a mandate for an
award, there isn't an award.
* * *
Finally, I think that the Best Pro Artist category needs to be
rethought. Michael Whelan pulled himself from contention next year
because he has won consistently. When someone builds enough of a
presence in the industry (as Whelan deservedly has) it's possible for
him to win even though they didn't do a single work of art in a given
year, simply because they are well known. Does this make sense?
We might as well be voting for Best Author instead of Best Novel. Best
Pro Artist shouldn't be tied to the person, but to the work. Don't
vote for the artist, but for the cover or illustration or painting that
you feel is best. This does mean, potentially, that Whelan could be
nominated two or three times in a year, but if that happens, it is
simply showing his dominance of the field and not his name recognition.
* * *
None of this, of course, will make the Hugo perfect. I do feel,
though, it will make it better. Still, a lot can be done if people
simply get involved. The Hugo is, like it or not, your award, and it
represents everyone involved in the SF genre. If you don't get
involved, you aren't part of the solution -- you're part of the problem.
The Masthead
OtherRealms is Copyright 1986 by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights Reserved
One time rights have been acquired from the contributors. All Rights
are hereby assigned to the contributors.
Reproduction Rights: OtherRealms may be reproduced only for non-commercial
uses. Re-use, reproduction, or reprinting of any individual article in
any way on any media is forbidden without permission.
OtherRealms is published monthly, except for the January issue in
December, by:
Chuq Von Rospach
160 Pasito Terrace #712
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
E-mail: chuq@sun.COM
CompuServe: 73317,635
Delphi: CHUQ
Publishers: review copies should be sent to this address for consideration.
Submission Policy
Material about Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror is solicited. The
main focus is reviews of newer and lesser known authors and their
books. Anything of interest to the serious reader of the genre is
welcome. First Serial is requested. Pico Reviews are welcome on any
book. Use the format in this issue, and limit your comments to one
paragraph. Letters to OtherRealms are always welcome. All letters
will be considered for publication unless specifically requested.
A new Writers Guide is available for a SASE to the above address.
Authors should include a bionote and make sure I know what address
(E-mail or traditional [or both) should be published in OtherRealms.
Copyrighted articles get a contributors copy of OtherRealms, so make
sure I have your U.S. Mail address.
Book Ratings in OtherRealms
All books are rated with the following guidelines. Most books should
have a three star rating. Anything rated three stars or above is
recommended. Stars may be modified with a + or a - to show a half star
rating, with [***-] being slightly better than [**+].
[*****] Classic, Hugo quality
[****] Hugo Nominee quality
[***] Average book, good read
[**] Somewhat flawed, has its moments
[*] Not recommended
[] Avoid at all costs
Subscriptions
OtherRealms is available in two forms. The electronic OtherRealms is
available on Delphi, on USENET in the group "mod.mag.otherrealms" and
on BBSes throughout the country. Readers on ARPA, CSNET, BITNET and
UUCP can receive it through E-mail. To get on the delivery list,
contact one of the E-mail addresses on this page.
The printed edition is available for $2.00 a copy through the mail or
at Future Fantasy in Palo Alto, CA. Subscriptions are $10/5 or $20/11
issues. These rates will go up January 1, 1987. Please make checks to
"Chuq Von Rospach." Fanzine trading rules apply -- you show me yours
and I'll show you mine. Publishers are eligible for free subscriptions
upon request. SFWA members: write for details on the professional
discount. Group discounts for clubs or bookstores are available.
